


Wallace and the problem sets of unrequited love

by Querulousgawks



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 07:17:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1596296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Querulousgawks/pseuds/Querulousgawks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or,<br/>what really happened in that hotel in the desert<br/>Or,<br/>why Piz can't listen to Neko Case in their study sessions</p>
<p>Rated for swearing. Inspired by vmficrecs May fic prompts:<br/>http://vmficrecs.tumblr.com/post/84466163874/may-veronica-mars-fic-prompts</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wallace and the problem sets of unrequited love

_Chimney falls and lovers blaze_

_Thought that I was young_

 

The sound leaked out around the gawky oversized headphones that went everywhere with Piz. It was mournful and creepy and slow, and that’s how he chair-danced to it, dropping his head on the downbeats and reeling back to bob a little on the up. Wallace couldn’t decide if it was harder to watch, or listen. Grinning a little, he turned away to look at everything else he couldn’t figure out, the packet of  problem sets and answer keys at the end of his rumpled bed. 

They didn’t make any more sense than the 97th time he’d looked at them. In fact, he wouldn’t actually swear to it that these were a matched set. He thought about the dazed and greasy miracle worker who had taken his money for the guide. Maybe he liked to switch them up, fuck with Hearst’s healthy supply of athletes in too deep? Another twisted psychology experiment? He’d rather put on a striped shirt and swap out with Horshack. 

He wouldn’t be a guard again, though. He shook his head. Weird thoughts weren’t gonna help him pass this test. He hid the answers under a spare pillow, looked at the first page: the following systems are at standard state.

  

_Want to put it all behind me_

_Everything reminds me_

  

Identify the problem. He wished it wasn’t winter. He’d been seeing that damn zip-up sweater all over campus, on girls who would probably look fine in it if Jackie Cook hadn't worn one first. It happened with things he’d seen her in  _once_ , with leather jackets and German cars, with dunk tanks and the Fader’s song that had sent him running to Chicago. 

Describe the initial conditions. As far as he could tell, his time for sulking about this had been up at the end of summer. Veronica still got her prepared-to-avenge face on in sympathy when he talked about it, but she didn’t really understand. However it looked on the outside, he knew V sent guys packing, she didn’t get left. She definitely didn’t chase them across the country just to get left again. 

 

_I just can’t shake the feeling_

_That I’m nothing, in your eyes_

 

He outlined his name at the top of the paper again, like that would help. There was a real possibility that he wasn’t smart enough for this. The right kind of smart. It was just his luck, that he could take apart an engine but he couldn’t solve for the internal temperature of one. If that was what he was supposed to be solving for? List the variables. He had only half-believed the bragging, but he had loved it, the big life that she could spin around the small one he was used to. He didn’t really believe her but she’d fooled him anyways. She’d even fooled Veronica, for a while, maybe.  Who knew when she’d figured it out? That was the real bedrock of their friendship: he hardly ever needed to know. Probably why he  was failing thermodynamics, too. 

  

_I can’t be myself without you_

_Wanna crawl down, deep inside_

  

He had too many variables, that was the problem. Jackie trying to smirk as she pulled away in the airport, pulling her tough guise on. Like she’d thought he couldn’t handle it, the real her, and here it was a year later and he still wasn’t sure if he could have. Which probably meant she was right, but that didn’t outweigh Jackie falling backwards smiling in the Neptune Grand, her eyes softer than he’d ever seen them. Jackie too close to naked on that dunk seat, her taped-to-a-pole mask slipping with every throw, until he’d wanted to jump between her and the crowd like the big damn hero that he wasn’t. Jackie crouched below an armed Marine and  _dialing 911_  like the casual death-defier that she was, and wasn’t that combination familiar. She belonged in Neptune more than he ever did, but she left and he stayed, it didn’t add up, it was just like a goddamn problem set, even with an answer key it didn’t make  _sense -_

 

_I’m so lonely, I’m so lonely,_

_I wish I was the moon, tonight_

 

He couldn’t take it.  _”_ That doesn’t even make  _sense!”_ he grabbed the iPod and gestured wide, indicating the problem set, the lyrics, his life. Piz reared back as the headphones snapped off his head, and Wallace realized he’d probably been asleep. 

Piz stared at Wallace, rubbing his ears. “I don’t know much about physics, man. Maybe…we should split this party up?” He gives him a sympathetic shoulder bump with one hand and eases the player away from him with the other. “I’ll just…get out of your hair. Way.”

The door snicked closed behind him, and Wallace sighed, staring at the rucked-up sheets he’d just leapt off. That counted as a study session, right? Maybe it was time for a nap.


End file.
